EXERCISES

Exercises
1. Look again at the discussion on page 17 above and then, on the basis of the tree
diagram below, say which of the following sequences are constituents of A.

(1) c  d. (2) a  b  c. (3) c  d  e  f. (4) e  f. (5) e  f  g  h.

(6) g  h. (7) E  C. (8) D  E. (9) F  g  h.

2. In tree diagram (a) above, what are the immediate constituents of:
(1) A? (2) B? (3) C?

3. (a) Draw a phrase marker for the phrase their rather dubious jokes which shows
that it contains the further phrase rather dubious jokes, which in turn
contains rather dubious as a phrase.
(b) Men from the Ministry is a phrase which contains from the Ministry and the
Ministry as phrases. Draw a phrase marker for the whole phrase.

4. Decide whether the italicised strings in the following sentences are constituents
of those sentences or not. Note that (g) is ambiguous; as with the ambiguous
example discussed in this chapter, you should identify the two interpretations and
say on which interpretation the italicised sequence forms a constituent.
(a) John considered visiting his great aunt.
(b) Maria simply gazed at the bollard she had just demolished.
(c) Maria simply gazed at the bollard she had just demolished.
(d) In the machine the gremlin could be heard juggling with ball-bearings.
(e) In the machine the gremlin could be heard juggling with ball-
bearings. (f) Rory put a silencer on the gun.
(g) Sam managed to touch the man with the umbrella.

5. In the light of the discussion of this chapter, how many constituents can you iden-
tify in sentence (a) given that the much shorter (b) is a grammatical sentence?
(Don’t attempt a complete analysis of sentence (a) – the fact that sentence (b) is
well-formed doesn’t provide enough information for that.)

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 (a) Being of a cautious disposition, Timothy very wisely avoided the heavily built
man whenever he drank at the Wrestler’s Arms.
(b) Timothy avoided the man.

6. I’ve not yet provided a complete analysis of sentence [4]. We have agreed that
old Sam, beside a stream, and a stream are among its constituent phrases. So
we can at least draw an incomplete phrase marker for it, as in (a):
(a) Sentence

We know that the complete string constitutes a sentence. In a complete phrase

marker, then, all the elements must be joined up to the Sentence node in some
way. The question is: How? There are three ways in which this could be done.
Each way offers a different analysis of the sentence – a different analysis of how
sunbathed fits into the structure and a different account of the immediate con-
stituents of the sentence. Draw the three different phrase markers and explain
in words (using ‘constituent’ and ‘immediate constituent of the sentence’) what
different claims are made about the structure of the sentence by each phrase
marker. (Make sure the phrases we have already acknowledged remain repre-
sented as phrases in your complete phrase markers!) I’m not here asking you to
choose which analysis you think is best – though I hope you have views on the
matter. In fact, all three analyses have been proposed at one time or another,
though one of them is most generally accepted these days and it is this that I
shall adopt in the next chapter.

 Discussion of exercises
1. (1) Yes. Both c and d – and only c and d – can be traced back to node E.
(2) No. D dominates a and b but not c. Node B does dominate a, b and c, but
it also dominates d; so there is no node that dominates all and only a, b,
and c.
(3) No. No single node that dominates all and only c, d, e, and f. Only A domi-
nates them all, but A dominates a, b, g, and h too.
(4) Yes. e and f (and only e and f ) can be traced back to the single node F.
(5) Yes. They alone can all be traced back to C.
(6) No. (7) No. (8) Yes. (9) Yes.

2. (1) B and C. (2) D and E. (3) F, g, and h.

3. (a) (b)

4. (a) Yes. It could be replaced by it and by what in forming the question What
did he consider?, to which visiting his great aunt is a possible answer. (Note
also that the sequence moves as a unit in forming the construction Visiting
his great aunt is what he considered.)
(b) Yes. (cf. she simply gazed at it. What did she gaze at? Answer: the bollard
she had just demolished.)
(c) No. In (b) above, the sequence the  bollard was shown to be part of the
phrase the bollard she had just demolished; it cannot then form a
constituent with from. (See the discussion of beside a stream that had dried
up [33] in the chapter, pp. 16 –17.)
(d) Yes. It could be replaced by there or somewhere. Furthermore, in the
machine is a good answer to the question Where could the gremlin be
heard juggling with ball-bearings? Finally, the sequence could be omitted
leaving a well- formed sentence.
(e) No. There is no question that In the machine the gremlin could possibly be
an answer to. Who/What could be heard . . . ? could receive the gremlin as
a possible answer; Where could the gremlin be heard . . . could receive In
the machine. Each of these, then, are phrases. But there is no single
question word that covers both where and what. So here we have a
sequence of phrases here but those two phrases don’t make up a further
phrase.
(f) ) No. Consider the oddity of *Rory put it and *Rory put something. And
the oddity of *What did Rory put? (Answer: *A silencer on the gun.)
(g) On one interpretation the sequence is a constituent, cf. Sam managed to
touch him and Who did Sam manage to touch? (Answer: The man with the
umbrella.) On the other interpretation, it is not a single phrase but a
sequence of two phrases. Cf. Sam managed to touch him with an umbrella,
Who did Sam manage to touch with an umbrella? (Answer: the man.)

5. The fact that (b) is a well-formed sentence allows us to infer that every sequence
of words omitted from (a) in order to form (b) can be counted as a constituent
of (a). These are:
Being of a cautious disposition
very wisely
heavily built
whenever he drank at the Wrestler’s Arms.
 There are other constituents in the (a) sentence, of course, and the constituents
listed here themselves contain further phrases as constituents.

6. Here are the three complete phrase markers. New bits are in bold.
(a)

(b)

(c)

(a) represents sunbathed as forming a constituent with beside a stream, and

divides the sentence into just two immediate constituents: old Sam and
sunbathed beside a stream. (b) also divides the sentence into two, but this time
the two parts are old Sam sunbathed and beside a stream. Phrase marker (c)
represents the sen- tence as having three immediate constituents, old Sam and
sunbathed and beside a stream; it says that sunbathed forms a constituent
neither with old Sam nor with beside a stream.
In attempting to represent what phrase marker (a) represents, you may have
been tempted simply to draw an extra line out from the phrase node dominating
beside a stream as (d):
 FURTHER EXERCISES

(d)

But (d) is incorrect. Can you see why? (Check the discussion on page 17.)
Although it associates sunbathed with beside a stream, it fails to represent
beside a stream as a phrase in its own right, independently of sunbathed. It fails
to do this because there is no node that dominates all and only beside  a 
stream. (The only node that dominates them all dominates sunbathed as well.)
Check that you have not succumbed to a similar temptation in connection with
(b).

Further exercises
1. The structural ambiguity of [36] in the text is a matter of whether old Sam or how
old is a constituent. All the following are structurally ambiguous. In each case,
identify the source of the ambiguity in terms of two different constituent analyses,
as I have just done with [36].

(1) This story shows what evil men can do.

(2) They only sell rotten fruit and vegetables.
(3) More interesting meals would have been appreciated.
(4) We need an agreement between workers on overtime.
(5) Bill asked the man who he had seen.

2. Draw a phrase marker for the phrase no previous experience of syntax, showing
that it contains the phrase previous experience of syntax as a constituent, which
in turn has the phrase experience of syntax as a constituent, which in turn has
the phrase of syntax as a constituent (which, of course, is made up by of and
syntax).

3. The new students are very worried is a sentence. Assume that it has two
phrases as immediate constituents: the new students and are very worried.
Furthermore, assume that the new students consists of the word the and the
phrase new students. And that are very worried consists of the word are and the
phrase very worried. Try drawing the phrase marker for the sentence in the light
of all that.

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